Monday, January 08, 2018

A court in California has ordered Antifa organizer Yvette Felarca to pay $11,000 after she filed a frivolous restraining order against former Berkeley College Republicans President Troy Worden.

In 2017, Antifa organizer Yvette Felarca filed a restraining order against former UC Berkeley College Republican president Troy Worden, citing two alleged incidents of harassment. Worden’s attorney alleges that Felarca made up two false accusations of harassment against him. He claims that Felarca used two incidents in which Worden made eye contact with her on campus as a basis for the restraining order.

Now, a California court has ordered Felarca to pay a $11,000 fine for filing a frivolous lawsuit. The funds will go directly to covering Worden’s attorney fees. In a press release, attorney Harmeet Dhillon suggested that the fine signals that Antifa can’t use the courts to silence their political opponents.

Apparently surging violent crime, massive tax hikes and insolvent public pensions are bad for attracting new residents...who knew? On the other hand, 364 days of sunshine per year, minimal crime, brand new infrastructure and some of the lowest tax rates in the country seems to be, to our complete shock, somewhat appealing to folks looking to relocate.

But that is just a couple of many interesting takeaways to be gleaned from the latest annual "U.S. Migration Report" from North American Moving Services which found that Illinois was the most ditched state in 2017.

A quick review of the data above, combined with the more comprehensive domestic migration map below, reveals a few other interesting themes:

Joe Ciolli writes at Business Insider that a new report claims worldwide debt climbed to a new record in 2017:

Global debt soared to a record $233 trillion in the third quarter of 2017, according to a report from the Institute of International Finance.

That marked a $16.5 trillion — or 8% — increase from the end of 2016. It also reflected record highs for private nonfinancial sector debt in Canada, France, Hong Kong, Korea, Switzerland, and Turkey.

One possible side effect of this massive debt burden could be a reluctance from central banks to tighten lending conditions, the IIF says. It points out in the report that because a prolonged low-interest-rate environment contributed to the swelling of debt levels, sovereign banks may be reluctant to rock the boat by hiking.

A married small-town Pennsylvania police chief was arrested Friday and accused of trying to solicit sex online from an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl.

The state attorney general's office said Leechburg Police Chief Michael Diebold, 40, was arrested at a spot in Westmoreland County where he thought he had made plans to meet the girl.

Diebold is charged with unlawful contact with a minor and criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, both felonies.

"This case is particularly heinous because the perpetrator is a public official, sworn to serve and protect the community," Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement. "We have a zero tolerance policy for the sexual abuse of children and my office will prosecute any offender to the fullest extent of the law, no matter who they are."

Henry Kissinger has said it's an all-out war in the White House of President Donald Trump.

'It is a war between the Jews and the non-Jews,' Kissinger, the former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, told Michael Wolff for his book 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House'.

It appears that the remark was an attempt to characterize the clash between former Trump chief adviser Steve Bannon on one side, and Jewish Trump family members Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump on the other.

Seven of my soldiers are dead. Two committed suicide. Bombs got the others in Iraq and Afghanistan. One young man lost three limbs. Another is paralyzed. I entered West Point a couple of months before 9/11. Eight of my classmates died “over there.”

Military service, war, sacrifice - when I was 17, I felt sure this would bring me meaning, adulation, even glory. It went another way.

Sixteen years later, my generation of soldiers is still ensnared in an indecisive, unfulfilling series of losing wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Niger—who even keeps count anymore? Sometimes, I allow myself to wonder what it’s all been for.

I find it hard to believe I’m the only one who sees it. Nonetheless, you hear few dissenting voices among the veterans of the “global war on terror.” See, soldiers are all “professionals” now, at least since Richard Nixon ditched the draft in 1973. Mostly the troops—especially the officers—uphold an unwritten code, speak in esoteric vernacular and hide behind a veil of reticence. It’s a camouflage wall as thick as the “blue line” of police silence. Maybe it’s necessary to keep the machine running. I used to believe that. Sometimes, though, we tell you lies. Don’t take it personally: We tell them to each other and ourselves as well.

Consider just three:1. Soldiers don’t fight (or die) for king, country or apple pie. They do it for each other, for teammates and friends. Think Henry V’s “band of brothers.” In that sense, the troops can never be said to die for nothing.

No disrespect to the fallen, but this framework is problematic and a slippery-slope formula for forever war. Imagine the dangerous inverse of this logic: If no soldiers’ lives can be wasted, no matter how unmerited or ill-advised the war, then the mere presence of U.S. “warriors” and deaths of American troopers justifies any war, all war. That’s intellectually lazy. Two things can, in fact, be true at once: American servicemen can die for no good reason and may well have fought hard and honorably with/for their mates. The one does not preclude the other.

Unfortunately, it seems Americans are in for (at least) three more years of this increasingly bellicose—and perilous—rhetoric. We saw it when Sean Spicer, President Trump’s former press secretary, had the gall to declare that questioning the success of a botched January raid in Yemen “does a disservice” to the Navy SEAL killed in the firefight. It got worse from there. Trump tweeted that a certain senator—Vietnam veteran John McCain, of all people—who talked about “the success or failure of the mission” to the media had “emboldened the enemy.” According to this fabled logic, Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens died for his brothers-in-arms, and thus to even ponderthe “what-for” is tantamount to abetting the enemy.

Agents posing as criminals couldn't get anyone to sell them guns on legitimate internet marketplaces

Federal agents posing as criminals were unable to purchase any firearms from legitimate online marketplaces despite dozens of attempts over a two-year period.

Between July 2015 and November 2017 investigators from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), following up on a congressional request, tried to make the illegal private gun purchases through a number of online forums and market places. They made 72 attempts over that time but couldn't complete a single sale using legitimate sites.

In 29 attempts the gun sellers refused the sale after being asked to illegally ship the gun to the buyer. Twenty-seven sellers refused after being told the potential buyer was a felon, domestic abuser, or otherwise prohibited from buying a firearm. Eleven sellers attempted to scam the investigators after finding out they were prohibited from buying firearms with two successfully obtaining money from investigators but never sending the promised firearm. Another five attempts to illegally purchase firearms were ended when the investigators' accounts were shut down due to suspicious activity.

The populist Danish People’s Party (DF) has suggested the government consider a mandatory curfew for under 18s in migrant ghetto areas in order to prevent disorder and delinquency.

The DF has proposed that all children below the age of 18 living in the ghetto areas should be required to be off the streets no later than 8 pm every night. DF MP Martin Henriksen argued that children should not be allowed outside on their own in areas that were prone to criminality, both for their own safety and to make sure they do not get caught up in criminality themselves, Jylland Posten reports.

“Young people, for example, 10, 11 or 12 years old, should not run around in the late evening hours if they live in an area where there is crime and insecurity,” Henriksen said.

“It is important that they are at home with their family instead of being out with criminal elements that can affect them in a negative direction,” he added.

We are a nation of 325 million people. We have a bit of control over the behavior of our 535 elected representatives in Congress, the president and the vice president. But there are seven unelected people who have life-and-death control over our economy and hence our lives -- the seven governors of the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board controls our money supply. Its governors are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate and serve 14-year staggered terms. They have the power to cripple an economy, as they did during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Their inept monetary policy threw the economy into the Great Depression, during which real output in the United States fell nearly 30 percent and the unemployment rate soared as high as nearly 25 percent.

The most often stated cause of the Great Depression is the October 1929 stock market crash. Little is further from the truth. The Great Depression was caused by a massive government failure led by the Federal Reserve's rapid 25 percent contraction of the money supply. The next government failure was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which increased U.S. tariffs by more than 50 percent. Those failures were compounded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. Leftists love to praise New Deal interventionist legislation. But FDR's very own treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau, saw the folly of the New Deal, writing: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. ... We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... and an enormous debt to boot!" The bottom line is that the Federal Reserve Board, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs and Roosevelt's New Deal policies turned what would have been a two, three- or four-year sharp downturn into a 16-year affair.

The new year began with a bang as the long stalled congressional investigations of the top FBI and Department of Justice officials and Fusion GPS begin to see daylight and the Clinton Foundation slush fund investigation resumed, this time with greater probity than the former top officials at the FBI and DOJ permitted.

Congressman Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, and Judiciary chairman Senator Chuck Grassley (along with Judiciary member Lindsey Graham) fired the first salvos of the year.

Devin Nunes

Chairman Nunes demanded and got from the long stonewalling FBI and DOJ the FD-302s and FD-1023s relating to the unverified, unverifiable, and totally discredited Steele dossier. These forms document interrogations and interviews by agents. Nunes now has the record of what Steele was asked by the FBI and what he answered. I assume that this is the predicate for establishing that the FISA warrant permitting the spying on the Trump campaign (and subsequent unmasking) by the Obama administration was not based on legally adequate grounds to get a warrant. Possibly, as well, they will show that certain individuals deliberately misled the FISA court (FISC).

This week we see all of the dots finally connected and conveniently Michael Wolff’s book, “Fire and Fury” is leaked which casts shade on Trump and Bannon’s relationship. It has now boiled over into a very public feud.To Distract, Perchance to Dream…

Part of me doesn’t believe a word of this and feels it’s all a distraction, if not a ploy by Trump, to attack Bannon just as he’s setting the trap for everyone involved in the phony Russia-gate story. It’s no secret that Bannon had little use for both Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner setting policy in the White House.

State Sen. Nathaniel Oaks, already facing allegations of fraud and bribery, was charged Wednesday with obstruction of justice in a new federal indictment in which prosecutors say he reneged on a deal with the FBI.

Prosecutors say Oaks, a Baltimore Democrat, tipped off the target of another investigation that FBI agents had in their sights.

Oaks, 71, was charged in April with wire fraud in a scheme in which he allegedly took cash in exchange for using his previous office as a state delegate to influence a development project.

The U.S. attorney’s office added eight more counts in a superseding indictment two months later. They included three more wire fraud counts and five for violations of the Travel Act, which forbids the use of cellphones in criminal activity.

In 1998, Forbes magazine discovered that a writer at The New Republic had “fictionalized his reporting to improve upon reality.” Ultimately, Stephen Glass became forever known as a “Fabulist” for having made up scores of stories for a myriad of major magazines.

Shamed and fired, he retreated from the literary world. A few years later, Jayson Blair, a reporter at the New York Times, was fired when it was discovered he fabricated and plagiarized multiple stories. In the aftermath, the managing and executor editors at the Times resigned.

Both scandals rocked the news and journalism communities, yet what a difference 15 years and a threat to the political status quo make, as Michael Wolff becomes the new international darling of fabulist reportage with “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”

The story is meant to be an exposé of a chaotic Trump White House, filled with whiney, gossipy aides who think the president dumb and churlish. Even Ivanka Trump is a turncoat, but a dumb one (of course). The books ends up as graffiti, paying homage to every fabulous fantasy of a cosmopolitan smart-set drowning in their fear and loathing of the president.

Rushed to publication after its target complained it was chock-full of falsehoods and untruths, we learn on page 10 of the prologue that … it’s chock-full of not the truth. Mr. Wolff admits in this note he’s not sure what’s true and what isn’t. He explains, being generous, that he’s leaving it to the reader to decide. He also confesses he, “settled on a version of events I believe to be true.”

Democratic warnings that President Trump would make life worse for minorities were discredited once again Friday, with the release of new unemployment statistics for December. In just under one year in office, the president and the Republican Congress have helped minorities make dramatic gains.

Since taking the reins from President Obama, President Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress have embraced free-market and pro-liberty economic policies. Now – after a year of reducing regulations, approving a tax cut, and encouraging stricter standards for numerous welfare programs at the state level – the economy is thriving. Working-age minorities are benefitting in ways they have rarely, if ever, have enjoyed in the modern era.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate for African-Americans fell to 6.8 percent in December – the lowest rate since record-keeping began in 1972. That’s an astounding drop from the 8.3 percent black unemployment rate in October 2016, just before Donald Trump was elected president.

Supporters of President Obama might attempt to argue that these incredible economic achievements should be credited to him, not to President Trump. But that would be wishful thinking without a basis in fact.

The truth is that although the economy has been slowly improving for several years, the rate at which the economy has experienced gains increased rapidly once President Trump was elected. It doesn’t take a genius or a mathematician to understand why.

CIA's Pompeo Says Russia and Others Trying to Undermine US ElectionsThe head of the Central Intelligence Agency said on Sunday that Russia and others are trying to undermine elections in the United States, the next major one being in November when Republicans will try to keep control of Congress.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to try to help President Donald Trump win, in part by hacking and releasing emails embarrassing to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and spreading social media propaganda.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo told CBS that the Russian interference is longstanding, and continues. Asked on "Face the Nation" if Moscow is currently trying to undermine U.S. elections, Pompeo responded: "Yes sir, have been for decades."

"Yes, I continue to be concerned, not only about the Russians, but about others' efforts as well," Pompeo said, without giving details..

For two days, a group of patriotic young men will hike more than 100 miles each to bring in an effort to raise inspire patriotism and support for military members.

Known as "Freedom Ruck," the event will see Victor Wise, the son of a retired Operation Enduring Freedom veteran, and his friends make a massive trek across northern Virginia. The event starts at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond. From there, the group will travel north along U.S. Route 1 with American flags in tow until they reach Arlington National Cemetery, just south of the Washington, D.C.

"The goal of Freedom Ruck is to simply say thank you. We try to lead by example and inspire folks to stand behind these heroes and their families. Our hope is to rally the public to take action. Our servicemen and women deserve to know how much we appreciate what they do," said Wise in a statement on the event's website.

In Yiddish it was not a curse, but the final expression, often whispered, when confronted by the endless parade of ungrounded arguers and protesters who have forever plagued Jewish life.

Of course, these Jewish odd-men-out never leave us. And they clearly thrive on hurting us with their off-balanced spouting.

For instance, here is what Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said about the Trump administration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel: “We’re very concerned that the announcement will either delay or undermine the very, very important resuming of a serious peace process.”

And here is what hundreds of American Conservative Jews and rabbis said, in a letter opposing their Conservative movement’s support of the Trump decision on Jerusalem: “We believe that support for President Trump’s announcement is both politically shortsighted and morally unsound.”

These statements by leftist Jewish leaders and their rabbis opposing the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem are declarations that clearly define who they are as leftists, people whose progressive ideology is more important to them than is being one with the people and nation of Israel.

Of course, the rest of us know that these too-educated glib leaders are the eternal Jewish ‘luftmenschen’ who have always plagued our communities; ungrounded, heads in the air, they believe their own words are a substitute for the hard work people perform to earn a living.

We have known them forever. They are our family members and friends who were socialists, communists, union organizers, deacons in the church of black civil rights, anti-war protesters, and now members of the army of Jews working in our communal organizations.

And we are weary of their endless lectures and rants, and particularly of their juvenile spouting about morality and justice.

So, how do we tell these Jewish social justice warriors in the United States that their endless talking is not heard in Israel?

On January 1, 2018 President Trump tweeted "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"

On January 2, 2018 President Trump tweeted "It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"

Like Pakistan and the Palestinians, Egypt is also a major beneficiary of US aid. Reuters reported the amount of US aid to Egypt "According to a March 2017 report by the bipartisan Congressional Research Service, between 1948 and 2016 the United States gave Egypt $77.4 billion in bilateral foreign aid, including $1.3 billion a year in military aid from 1987 to the present."

Although the Arabs are massive beneficiaries of US aid, many despise the US and consider US aid Jizya. Jizya is a discriminatory tax that, according to Islamic law, non-Muslim subjects have to pay to their Muslim rulers.

Ocean City Fire EMS on the scene at Eagles Nest Rd. and Castaways Campground. Motor vehicle accident with serious injuries, car vs. excavator. MSP Trooper 4 requested. Unknown number of patients. Both vehicles were in motion at the time of the accident.

Suddenly it's all Fire And Fury, and according to its author, Michael Wolff, no less than 100% of his sources in the White House told him the Donald is a "dope" or an "idiot" and is a "child" who has tantrums if he doesn't get what he wants and get it right now.

We are pretty sure Mr. Wolff exaggerates. After all, Ivanka is apparently still trundling around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, yet how would she know?

More to the point, the Donald doesn't have the Deep State and its collaborators in the media and among the Dems and establishment Republicans lathered-up in a Salem-style witch-hunt hysteria because he's stupid. What he is is reckless, impetuous, undisciplined, glandular, petty, megalomaniacal, mendacious and uninformed-----and also in so deep over his head that even his signature orange comb-over will soon be fading from sight.

Cable and satellite TV providers are ringing in the new year with an unwelcome gift: higher cable bills.

Comcast, for instance, says customer bills will rise 2.2 percent, on average, in 2018. AT&T is raising DirecTV’s prices by up to $8 a month in mid-January. Smaller providers are planning increases, too.

Over the past decade, prices for TV service have risen almost twice as fast as inflation, according to an analysis of government data. Data provider S&P Global Market Intelligence says customers’ cable and satellite TV bills have soared 53 percent since 2007, to $100.98 in 2017.

Annual rate hikes are as guaranteed as death and taxes. But you can push back and trim your bill.

The new year has only just begun, but already Democratic politicians in the country’s largest high-tax states are threatening lawsuits and publicly touting proposed workarounds to help compensate tax payers for the elimination of the state and local tax (SALT) deductions which were dramatically rolled back, along with deductions for mortgage interest, as part of the White House’s tax reform plan.

During his state of the state address earlier this week, New York Mayor Andrew Cuomo threatened to sue the federal government over the tax bill, claiming that the plan is unconstitutional and overly burdensome to New Yorkers.

Cuomo said that the new law could raise some families' taxes by as much as 25% and said the plan amounted to "double taxation." He later accused President Donald Trump of waging “economic civil war” on states that didn’t back him during the election, and promised to consider workarounds that would help lower residents’ federal tax bills, according to Bloomberg.

Then, on Thursday, California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon introduced a bill that the Washington Post said could become a model for how blue states push back against the Trump tax plan.

According to the Trump tax plan, which took effect in January, taxpayers can only deduct up to $10,000 in state and local taxes when they file their federal return.

Mitt Romney changed his Twitter profile location from “Massachusetts” to “Holladay, UT” as soon as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) announced his retirement on Tuesday.

It is clear that Romney intends to run for the open seat, and pundits agree that he is likely to win. But in all the speculation about whether Romney would run in Utah, no one has asked whether he should, or what broader purpose his victory there would serve, beyond his own ambitions.

A new Department of Justice probe of the email and charity fraud scandals won't end well for Bill or Hillary...

Until recently, the Clinton Foundation has been monitored by the IRS, the Department of Justice, and the FBI, and multiple state government authorities that are seeded with persons loyal to either the Clintons or the Obamas.

Every time, the Clinton Foundation got a free pass.

But now it appears key authorities may finally be turning strict attention toward answering tough questions about public filings of Clinton “charities” inside and outside the United States. When these powerful organizations engage motivated minds, they will wish to concentrate on a few areas that have long gone begging for attention.

The first time the Clinton Foundation was investigated, between 2001 and 2005, then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey, and others could not seem to find obvious and escalating frauds as a supposed presidential library complex in Little Rock, Arkansas, also “fought HIV/AIDS internationally” from unregistered offices in New York and Massachusetts without ever obtaining required audits of worldwide activities.

Strangely, as the first investigation wound down, evidence in the public domain suggests that the Clinton Foundation also defrauded the National Archivist by making demonstrably false representations in a binding legal agreement.

$1.1 billion in member dues sent to hundreds of anti-Republican advocacy groups

WASHINGTON – Labor unions across the country sent nearly $1.1 billion in member dues to hundreds of advocacy groups aligned with the Democratic Party from 2010 to 2016, according to new research.

Unions, including the AFL-CIO and IBEW, have provided Planned Parenthood, the Clinton Foundation, the Democratic Governors Association and dozens of leftist groups hundreds of millions of dollars, a report from Center for Union Facts reveals.

What’s more egregious, the president of the Center for Union Facts, Luka Ladan, explained in an interview with WND, is that union members are in the dark about how their dues are being spent.

The billion-plus dollars unions have distributed to liberal advocacy groups that are generally anti-Republican were allocated without obtaining prior member approval.

“This is the most comprehensive analysis of union advocacy spending ever done. Under current labor law, these officials are required to obtain permission before spending money on political candidates or super-PACs, but not for political advocacy,” Laden explained Friday. “That means liberal advocacy groups from the Clinton Foundation, to Planned Parenthood, to Center for American Progress, groups like that that advocate a left-wing political agenda.”

Whether it is merely the FBI trying to restore its shattered credibility or justice finally being done, the news that the pay-to-play activities of the Clinton Foundation are going to get renewed and serious attention is welcome. The Clintons have made a career of ignoring, skirting, and breaking the law. Up to this point, crime has paid off handsomely for the Clintons, but now they may find themselves caught between Little Rock and a hard place:

The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of [s]tate, law enforcement officials and a witness tell[] The Hill.

FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in the coming weeks.

The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.

Over a decade ago we got involved in the development of the biofuels industry in Europe, when it began to take off in earnest there.

At that time estimated profits from biodiesel production created considerable enthusiasm, which at one point turned euphoric with new production facilities being announced almost on a weekly basis.

What was not to like? Europeans would get to drive their cars using green, very low-carbon, seemingly affordable fuels, saving the environment in the process. And investors would make a ton of money.

However, reality turned out to be rather more complicated than that, much to the chagrin of those investors. Production margins were quite volatile and very difficult to hedge into the future. All that new demand ended up spiking the prices of vegetable oils – the key biodiesel production input – way above those of fossil fuels. Entire domestic production complexes went bust as a result, prompting governments across Europe to eventually implement a range of support measures to make biofuels part of the fuel mix.

Biodiesel became the biofuel of choice in Europe for many reasons. It can be used as a blend component for diesel or replace it completely (typically referred to as B100, or biodiesel 100%). Both options were available in many pumps across Germany, the industry's pioneer and largest European market by far at that time. Despite being staunch environmental supporters and relatively wealthy, when the price of a liter of B100 was higher just by one cent German consumers immediately switched to its fossil fuel counterpart.

In other words, when push came to shove the willingness to pay for a "green" premium was not there - even in one of the most environmentally conscious countries in the world. This stunned us at the time.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly been placed under house arrest for criticizing current President Hassan Rouhani and inciting unrest, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported, citing “reliable sources in Tehran.”

“Some of the current leaders,” the former president of Iran apparently said in late December, “live detached from the problems and concerns of the people and do not know anything about the reality of society.”

“What it suffers Iran today is mismanagement and not lack of economic resources,” he said.

Ahmadinejad’s comments came as numerous Iranians began taking to the streets to protest the government. Domestic demonstrations have drawn the attention of the international community and the support of the Trump administration, which appears interested in regime change in Iran.

Safety Seat Inspections: MDKISS will hold an indoor child safety seat inspection station at the Salisbury Fire Department. Not sure if your car seat is in properly….come have a trained certified child passenger safety technician check it for you!

WHY: Making sure young passengers are buckled into appropriate safety seats is critical. The safest place for children of any age to ride is properly restrained in the back seat. Data show that child safety seats reduce the risk of death in car crashes by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers ages one to four.

Millsboro - The Delaware State Police are issuing a Gold Alert for Joshua C. Griffith,of Millsboro who was last heard from through text messages on Monday, January 8, 2018.

Joshua is a white male, 35 years of age, 5’09″ tall, 220 lbs., with brown eyes and brown hair. He may be driving a white, 2006 Dodge Dakota pick-up truck with DE registration CL50537.

Troopers have been unable to make contact with Joshua to check on his welfare. Attempts to locate him have been unsuccessful and there is a real concern for his safety and welfare.

If anyone has any information in reference to his whereabouts, they are asked to please contact Troop 4 at 302-856-5850. Information may also be provided by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333 or via the internet athttp://www.delaware.crimestoppersweb.com.

WASHINGTON — Artificial sweeteners have an effect on the body’s metabolism and can lead to excessive fat accumulation in people, especially those who are already obese, according to a recent study.

Dr. Sabyasachi Sen, an associate professor of medicine and endocrinology at George Washington University, led the study, explaining in a press release by the Endocrine Society that while many people rely on these artificial sweeteners as a low-calorie alternative to natural sweeteners, “there is increasing scientific evidence that these sweeteners promote metabolic dysfunction.”

Sen and his colleagues tested the popular low-calorie sweetener sucralose on stem cells taken from human fat cells. They placed these cells in Petri dishes for 12 days, adding 0.2 millimolars of sucralose. The dosage is based on the concentration of sucralose in the bloodstreams of people with high consumption levels of the artificial sweetener — about four cans of diet soda per day.

The researchers observed increased expression of genes that produce fat and inflammation. They also saw an increased accumulation of fat droplets in the cells, especially when they increased the concentration of sucralose.